This invention relates g a disposable fluid bag or container having a fluid inlet valve, and more specifically relates to means for opening a fluid inlet valve of a disposable container.
Disposable fluid bags are extensively used as an enema or douche bag. They are also used widely in hospitals and nursing homes, to store and hold medicines, nourishment, vitamins etc. The fluids may be transferred to the patient through a conventional gravity flow system. It is imperative to maintain these bags free of contamination during use, particularly when the user is very ill and may have a seriously impaired immune system.
A flexible container previously used such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,874, June 13, 1989, entitled, "Fluid Container Having A One Way Valve", by the inventor Melvin I. Eisenberg, included a front flexible wall and a rear flexible wall sealed together along marginal portions thereof to define a body for holding fluid and unsecured along other portions thereof to provide an inlet fluid supply opening. The upper part of the container was formed into a neck configuration which included the fluid supply opening at the outer end thereof.
A valve was positioned inside the neck of the container adjacent the fluid supply opening between the front and rear walls, to provide a fluid inlet passageway when the valve was open and to close the fluid inlet passageway when the valve was closed. The valve comprised an inner sheet and a spring sheet opposed to each other. The inner sheet was normally in contact with the spring sheet to close the valve. Upon the application of an inward force at opposite points on the outside of the neck of the container, the inner sheet and the spring sheet bowed outward and away from each other to open the valve, so that fluid could pass between the inner sheet and spring sheet and into the body of the container.
The spring sheet was formed from a rigid type flexible plastic material, whereas the inner sheet was formed from a flexible soft and pliable plastic material which tended to cling, and frequently tightly engaged the spring sheet when the valve was closed. When this occurred, the container did not readily open.
Moreover, the nurse, nurse's aid or other attending medical person, when encountering difficulty in opening the valve upon pressing inward at opposed points on the neck of the container, would often times reach inside the neck of the container and pull the clinging inner sheet away from the spring sheet with his or her finger(s). This increased the likelihood of contaminating the container, which, if the container became contaminated, could be extremely detrimental to the health and well being of the patient.
The subject invention overcomes the afore-mentioned problems and affords positive means, isolated from the fluid supply opening, for easily and quickly opening the inlet fluid valve of the disposable container.